Suspicious item is found during search of employee's vehicle at checkpoint

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WINTERSBURG, Ariz. — A device that prompted the temporary closure Wednesday of the entrance to a nuclear power plant west of Phoenix was apparently a smoke flare, authorities said.

Maricopa County Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. Brian Lee said the device was found on the floorboard of an employee's car at a security checkpoint a mile from the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station at about daybreak. At first glance it looked like a stick of dynamite, so plant security closed the checkpoint to traffic as a precaution.

Power plant operations weren't affected and the checkpoint was reopened.

Philip Seymour Hoffman withdrew a total of $1,200 from an ATM at a supermarket near his New York City apartment the night before he was found lifeless in his bathroom with a syringe still in his left arm, sources told NBC News.